Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion
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Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion section of the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Mass. As such, our focus starts there and spreads to include Massachusetts, the nation and the world. Since successful blogs create communities of readers and writers, we hope the \x34& Co.\x34 will also come to include you.

That stench in the air this morning is the sulfuric smell of Barry Obama arriving in Boston.

Over the past six months, I’ve been getting really sick of people pooh poohing the small business owners who have been facing massive escalation of health care costs because of Obamacare as well as substantive damage to the bottom line even though these companies have fewer than fifty employees. In fact, three business owners who went on television to explain the impact were called liars by the Obama punditocracy. Well, in the past five days, I can retract my earlier statement that we are all going to see increases of around 19%. I admit it–I was wrong. What’s really happening is that all of us small business owners are finding our policies simply canceled. And, in fact, when my benefit manager started crunching numbers, both in terms of my companies and client companies, we are finding that getting equal coverage on those stinking exchanges will require premiums that are 35% higher with half the benefit. So much for the promise that those of us who like our insurance can keep it. It now appears that for every uninsured person who gets coverage under Obamacare at least 14 people are losing coverage, and for people like me it is starting to make far more sense to pay the penalty, ditch the insurance and bankroll the amount I currently pay for medical emergencies. In short, Obamacare isn’t curing the problem of the uninsured–its shifting the burden of being uninsured from those who pay taxes to those who don’t. Under the subsidy plan, I could find myself uninsured, while paying insurance for everyone else. If you still don’t believe, read the AP article below.